Manga the Complete Guide [Paperback]

I first heard of this author and this book on the "Comic Geek Speak" podcast, (an excellent podcast by the way). I have been reading American comic books for over 25 years and had read very little Manga but was always interested. I was bit put off from some Manga because it either seemed juvenile or pornographic.

This book does a tremendous job in dispelling the image of Manga that many of us raised on American comics have about the genre. This book explains not only the history of Manga but the various types of Manga to the point where if you can't find something you'd like, you just didn't look hard enough. Plus there are over 900 reviews!

Don't like big-eyed teenage girls running around in skirts? Don't worry! There is a Manga series that caters to both men and women of every age group and interest. Horror, fantasy, occult, mystery, politics, sci-fi, sports, pets, martial arts, military, business people, etc...Whew! Without this book, the hundreds of titles and dozens of genres would be too much to try and piece together.

I'm sure many experienced Manga fans will disagree with some of his reviews but when you've read as many as the reviewer has, cliches are probably very easy to spot and quality easy to discern.

If you feel that your American Comics collection is getting a bit predictable or drab, or you just want to expose yourself to this art form, this book is a must for people absolutely new to the form.

I picked up a copy of Manga: The Complete Guide, since I already owned an Anime version of this type of collection. Basically, it is a listing of every Japanese manga licensed in English (by early 2007) with a synopsis and a review, along with volume information and age ratings (though mistakes like the volume # for Hero Heel abound).

This volume also contains an introduction and afterward about Japanese comics (and even has a hiragana/katakana chart for reference), which are all very interesting and useful. The book succeeds as a reference guide to manga in general, but the separate yaoi section fails as a good guide for determining whether a series is worthwhile or not, and probably because this book was compiled mostly by men (presumably straight) who are not necessarily fans of the genre (the ratings seem to get lower the more graphic the series are...) and seem to prefer Viz shonen series (for which the author is an editor).

The book does list all of the active licenses up to last year (2007), except for being entirely lacking of any of the BL novels (aside from mentioning the OtRFK novels) or non-BL light novels, and not containing any Korean manwha titles, Chinese manhua, OEL (western graphic novels styled like manga) or cine-manga (picture manga based on anime series/movies). This is an English-licensed-Japanese-manga-only collection.

I wouldn't take the ratings to heart, especially since they go from 0 to 4 stars, which aside from being awkward are completely inconsistent. Naruto got 4 stars, but Fruits Basket, the greatest selling shojo manga in the US and Japan got 3.5. Bleach got 3 stars, though the review would lead you to believe it wasn't "that great" of a title. People expect a 5 star system (0 to 5, that is), especially since it gives you more to work with in differentiating between "bad" titles and "okay" titles. The top score should be reserved for the seminal works and there seemed to be just too many of them slapped on titles that only marginally deserved a high rating (Naruto, anyone?).

The yaoi section reviews were particularly abysmal, when there actually were reviews (many of the titles were left unrated). Some of the most celebrated BL titles of all time were snubbed: FAKE got 2 stars because the reviewer didn't like the artwork; Embracing Love got 4 stars while fellow BBGold signature titles Finder Series and Kizuna got 2.5 stars?! Other marginal titles got rave reviews: Wild Rock got 4 stars, and while not a bad series, the rating seems based on someone's personal feelings about the title and not its own merit.

The review and rating system would have better been served by extensive research of official published reviews for series and average manga fan reactions to them and not the personal and incosistent feelings of the people compiling this book. However, this is a good collection of information about past titles you might want to look into. This is one of those books that you'll want to look out for future editions of/additions to (since there are more and more titles being licensed every day). For the price, I would suggest finding this book on sale or used somewhere. The inconsistent ratings, errors and omissions (particularly of light novels and manwha) only garner this collection 3 stars. If it were available in an updatable e-book format I would recommend that instead.

Thompson's book is an impressive achievement, and he's written the definitive "Everything You Ever Really Wanted to Know About Manga (But Had the Good Sense Not to Ask)" reference book. He provides coverage of every single manga that's been translated and made commercially available in the United States, which is a major undertaking by itself, and he goes the extra mile by including extensive essays on a variety of subjects ranging from basic Japanese culture to American fandom to the ins and outs of the publishing industry itself. Any librarian or educator who really wants to get a handle on what their kids are reading should do themselves a favor and order a copy. Manga fans themselves will want this just to keep track of the sheer number of comics that have been released since the 1980s, and to determine which ones are worth tracking down, and which should be avoided at all costs.

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